SHOOTING THE PAST

An analytical essay on Stephen Poliakoff's TV drama
By Oliver Wood.

INTRODUCTION

Through critical analysis of shooting the past, this essay will attempt to
both illustrate and define the essential elements of the text with respect to
the discourse of both the psychology and history of the photographic image. The
piece will incorporate elements drawing on theories of culturally constructed
value judgement (US Vs European) and how it may constitute a general metaphor
for the drama's range of dialectics. The essay will also make reference to the
transcendent denotative power of the photograph to authoritatively qualify
history & memory, essentially a tangential slant on John Tagg's essay on
the use of photographs as evidence in Law.

A GENERAL SYNOPSIS OF THE TEXT

Shooting The Past is essentially a complex and multifaceted text amenable to
quite a broad range of interpretations and critical readings. It addresses
issues of psychology, art history and virtually all of the essential debates
concerned with the aesthetic, social and historical issues of photographic
value. The drama delineates many of its concerns in the form of metaphorical
dichotomies presented as clashes of life style, culture, working practices and
personality. However, the dominant element of the text naturally encompasses a
sort of exposition of two of the most profound and disparate critical debates
surrounding photography. Notions of the artistic, expressive and cultural
validity of the photograph constitute a significant aspect of the curator's
initial discourse on the importance of preservation, illustrating the
uniqueness and non-replicable quality of particularly old photographs and
their significance as articles of Art History. The archive collection includes
an original Man Ray. However, this mode of appreciation is juxtaposed with
another significant aspect of photographic value, namely that which concerns
the denotative power of the photograph. An idea famously grounded in notions of
the photographs classic qualities of verisimilitude and 'realism' and its
consequent power to provide an authoritative repository of memory and both
personal and general history. This matrix of understanding rapidly develops
into an important element of the narrative logic underpinning the whole
raison d'être of the piece the "McGufin"(1). It becomes the tool
by which the collection curators (by luck) manage to pursue an apparently
unknown history of the US property developer Christopher Anderson, who
threatens the survival of the archive. The narrative(s) thus disclosed
effectively reconstruct Anderson's rather colourful past before his very eyes.
As the dramatic narrative moves toward a conclusion these two strands
eventually merge to produce a moving and elucidating counterpoint that
poignantly brings together both the connotative and denotative values of the
photographic image to illustrate its unique power and qualities of discourse.
The resultant emotional effect on Anderson when he realises that the archive
has such significance as a repository of both collective and personal memory
(including his own) is sufficient to convince him of the importance of its
preservation.

A CLASH OF CODES, ANTIQUITY Vs MODERNITY

Poliakoff seems to develop a very strong discourse on the fundamental
differences between US and British, European culture in relation to socially
constructed value judgements. There appears to be a polarisation between
notions of antique value and modernity the discourses essentially being key
elements of the reasoning of the British Curators, and the US "executives"
respectively and true to cinematic/dramatic codes this dialectic is almost
entirely articulated in the form of signs and metonymy's. Shooting the past
begins with an elaborate disclosure of the location and setting of the archive
narrated by Oswald. Its a large historic English house set in an idyllic
location, it is in effect presented as a grand icon of Englishnes and
antiquity, solidity, and artefact. The location of the archive itself seems to
hint at the possibilities of its contents original value status and historic
significance. A very obvious counterpoint to this is the Americans desire to
convert the building into a "a school for business in the 21st century".
Effectively a self evident index of modernity and also one that stands for the
culture of commerce and economic value a culture which is totally at odds with
that which prevails within the archive. When Christopher Anderson arrives with
his colleague, he appears to almost rudely disturb the tranquillity and
contemplative ambience of the archive rather like a group of over noisy
tourists entering some foreign sacred sight. Conversations are held on mobile
phones and information recovered from laptops. Anderson is enveloped in the
paraphernalia of the modern world and subject to all of its pressures and time
constraints qualities and concerns which are once again at odds with the
timeless nature of the archives contents.

Already we have reached a point where it may be possible to suggest that
Poliakoff is drawing our attention to the disparate systems of value judgement
alluded to above. The whole raison d'être of the archive, as with
a museum, is the preservation of original material, the thing itself, something
which is invested with an almost metaphysical significance, the object made by
the hand of the Artist. Could it be that Poliakoff is suggesting that this
notion of original value is something peculiarly non-American? America in a
sense is a repro culture; there is a common perception that it lacks a culture
of antiquity, or more specifically a culture of antique value. But is instead a
culture that values "newness" and would appear to be amenable to the concept of
preservation by an endless process of recycling and reproduction and this of
course ties in with the capitalist matrix of consumption and disposal. To
illustrate the point further, Anderson is baffled by Oswald's reluctance to use
information technology as a cataloguing tool. Instead, Oswald prefers to use
his memory. It is a suggestion that could be developed further in accordance
with Anderson's modern technical context. He is effectively proffering an idea,
which suggests that the archive may be more efficient if it was to be preserved
in the form of a microfiche, or digitised and stored on a box of floppy disks.
This is essentially an idea that runs counter to the notion of artistic object
value to which photographs are also subject.

This conception of values and signs connects the viewer with an ontological
critique of photography which is primarily one of the discursive concerns of
Oswald's character manifest in his scopophilic obsession with the "object" the
print and his motivation toward principals of collection and cherishing. The
photograph does indeed have a very interesting quality in the sense of its
relationship with the object or scene depicted. A quality which stems directly
from its technical chemical nature whereby an image is impressed upon the
negative or plate by the light emanating from the subject, to create a unique
almost existential record of time and presence. A quality that Oswald would
feel is lost if the image were to be removed from its original medium by
technical storage, reproduction and even negative copying. This idea of
photographic object value in a sense relates to an ancient notion of the
metaphysical power of the art object, something which André Bazine has
referred to as a "mummy complex"(2). A term used to describe the historical
root of painting and image making which in large part was concerned with the
preservation of life, or rather the essence of being and personality by copying
likeness. Of course he also states that: "no one believes any longer in the
ontological identity of model and image but instead the image helps to preserve
the subject from a "second spiritual death" in so far as it preserves a
memory"(3). However, the photograph is a rather different thing from
painting and sculpture in that it does have a particular concrete connectivity
with the subject recorded. Bazine also suggests that "Photography enjoys a
certain advantage in virtue of the transference of reality from the thing to
its reproduction"(4)

So ultimately these ideas bring us back to the notion of "antique value" which is just a sort of reappropriation of the mummy
complex? Oswald's position is thus one that effectively asserts that only the
objects of the past can truly connect us with the past and only photographic
originals can truly connect us with the lives and historical events they
depict. Of course this initial speculative suggestion on the relative positions
of the characters is loaded with irony in the sense that it assumes that the
Americans may be aligned with a notion that Walter Benjamin refers to as the
"cult value"(5) of the photograph. A category supposedly loaded with quasi
Marxist overtones. However, the archives position is more attuned to Benjamin's
obverse idea of "exhibition value"(6) one which is couched in the rhetoric of
bourgeois exclusivity and 'uniqueness,'. Another more important semiological
matrix is Barth's conception of connotative meaning and denotative meaning and
this dialectic seems to underpin the relative positions of Oswald and Marilyn
respectively and is in some ways reflected in their differing approaches to
the archive. Anderson's position is almost that of a catalyst that effectively
instigates a more active cross fertilisation between these two sets of
polarities, i.e. the connotative and the denotative, cult value and exhibition
value, etc. Though the various allegiances in relation to the matrix of cult
vale and exhibition value are very much more ambiguous and
sometimes ironically reversed. As the piece moves toward closure and resolution
it is of course the images of least "value" that actually become the most
significant and valuable in terms of the archives "power" these emotive and
personal images essentially fall within the category that Anderson would have
initially declared worthless.

OSWALD ENTERS THE FRAME

Oswald is presented as something of an anti-hero but is without doubt the most
entertaining and engaging character in the drama. An esoteric genius in the
mould of a proverbial train spotter pedant. However, this caricaturing of
Oswald may be a conscious decision by Poliakoff to articulate the fashionable perception that anyone
rigorously engaged in non economically productive activity is somehow
borderline dysfunctional. An inevitable consequence of "dumbing down" is the
vilification of the enthusiast or autodidact. Oswald engages in a very
specific kind of relationship with photography and the form and function of the
archive. One ostensibly based upon an obsessive fanatical love,
the archive is literally Oswald's life, and the prospect of its
possible demise is a cause of his decent into a suicidal state of depression.
True to type, he appears to be quite a solitary person living alone and
surrounded by the paraphernalia of his obsession. He is something of a poetic
fantasist, the sort of person that would locate his identity within the meta
world of stories and escapism, somewhat similar to Woody Alan's Bogart obsessed
character in "Play it Again Sam". Oswald's medium of empathic assimilation is
not so much cinema but rather photography. The archive for Oswald is a vast
store house of crystallised dreams, fantasies, identities and "other" lives,
it's a place of both refuge and escape, a place where he can pay homage to the
past. In short, Oswald's interest appears to be primarily concerned with the
connotative and quasi-linguistic qualities of the photographic image. In
accordance with this he is generally presented as a literate and linguistically
entertaining character, his dialogue couched in playful prose and poetics which
suggests obvious imagination and cultural insight.

The suggestion that Oswald's character is, in some way, connected with the
notions of connotative meaning is further alluded to by the situation that
follows the first meeting with the Americans. When they temporarily leave the
building to deliberate on their plans Oswald is seen to preside over a rather
sumptuous banquet, a scene that appears to be an obvious reference to the last
supper. However, more significant than this is the way that Oswald uses the
situation to present a possible strategy for thwarting the Americans' take-over
operation. He suggests that everyone should behave as if nothing untoward has
happened, that they should all continue with their meal as if it were a routine
day at the archive. He intends to convince the Americans that he and his
colleagues are all mad and "capable of anything" by setting up an impression of
almost intangible resilience in the face of great adversity in the hope that
this will somehow persuade the Americans that they are dealing with a totally
non-amenable intractable situation . This of course is the concept of "the
spirit of the blitz" a mythical notion entirely created by the media and
substantially supported by the photo press, no doubt the archive contains many
examples of such propaganda photographs, pictures of "happy" Londoners
sheltering in the underground during raids. Oswald's positing of such an idea
seems to be a very telling illustration of the possibility of the citing of his
consciousness within the discourse of the photographic frame story and his
tendency toward a romanticised narration of life based on the consumption of
images.

Through out the drama Oswald continues to make a video diary at home, a
process which also constitutes a diegetic narration device. This is one of his
characters most important activities and one that has been loaded with
semiological significance relating to the general thematics of the drama. The
process becomes something of a grand trope for Oswald's status as an icon of
the connotative index, his interest in the "image" and his special spiritual
connection with the geography of the frame. Poliakoff seems to have constructed
this device as a sort of elaborate processional "McGuffin" conceived as a means
of elucidating a range of concepts of photographic value and power. Oswald
begins his diary with an outline of his modus operandi, whilst videoing himself
he will occasionally take a still with a conventional 35mm camera. He begins
his recording by disclosing his state of mind and it becomes clear that in view
of the situation his intention is to commit suicide and that this material
should constitute his epitaph, the mood is appropriately elegiac and sombre. .
As Oswald proceeds with his recording, he takes photographs at salient moments
simultaneously decanting the temporal continuity of the video recording to the
iconic plane of the photograph. The process evokes an aspect of the logic of
the semiological codes of the photographic image whilst simultaneously linking
it with those of the cinema. We are effectively subjected to a sort of
schematic delineation of the creation of "signs". Oswald's video recording now
operates as a narrative "signified" informing and building the status of the
photograph as "signifier". As Shooting The Past progresses these photographs
are poignantly inter cut with the montage of the drama almost as attractions,
so that they become effectively transposed to the level of iconic symbols which
now embody an emotive significance as relics of Oswald and serve to generally
convince us of the importance of ordinary photographs, snap shots, family album
photos etc. Its quite a simple, derivative device, but never the less very
effective. It also relates back to the notion of Bazines "mummy complex" and
the quasi metaphysical fixing of being in some other form or medium. Oswald
does after all, hint at a desire for this material to provide a form of
immortality.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF NARRATIVE

Marilyn's character seems to have been conceived to provide a slightly
different angle on the critical history of photography and the operation of the
archive. She is presented as a rather more pragmatic personality than Oswald in
so far as she seems to share a common thread of "business like" nature with
Christopher Anderson. She is ostensibly an administrator in the sense that her
personal involvement with the archive is one that alludes to a sense of
functionality, as if it were a systemic machine or resource for the
construction of narratives and historical research, which of course it is. Even
though Oswald has considerable knowledge of the cataloguing, and is
instrumental in the process of connective research, it seems to be Marilyn who
takes on the responsibility for a quasi-forensic assimilation of narratives
from the collection of photographs. The professional similarities between
Marilyn and Christopher Anderson lead to a sort of kinship bond, an
identification that enables Marilyn to gain Anderson's attention and lead him
through a discursive didactic narrative on the archives functional
importance.

The device that Poliakoff has chosen as the foundation of this narrative
relates to the holocaust and is itself loaded with symbolic significance in
relation to the overall situation, in so far as it could be read as an index of
the persecution of the archive at the hands of global business and
modernisation. With the help of Oswald Marilyn presents a collection of
photographs belonging to the Oldendorph family. They effectively catalogue a
period in the life of a little Jewish girl in nazi Germany. The narration of
the poignant life they depict is relayed to Anderson by Marilyn who presents
the collection as if it where a ready-made storyboard. A degree of suspension
of disbelief is required at this point because it is not exactly clear as to
how such a concise and coherent story could have been acquired. All that is
important is the idea that Marilyn is using the archive resources to piece
together a life in the manner of a forensic detective. Her mode of operation
appears to be very strongly dependent on notions of the photographs likeness to
truth and the didactic power which stems from this. Alan Sekulla states that;
"the power of the folklaw of pure denotation in the photographic image is
substantially responsible for the elevation of the photographic image to the
legal status of document or testimonial"(7) an idea that would seem to
relate to Marilyn's deterministic process of information delivery. Though it
would not be possible to suggest that any of her activities are based purely on
the denotative category of meaning, obviously the emotive power of these
photographs is based on the connotation of the holocaust. Allan Sekulla also
suggests that; "In the real world no separation between denotation and
connotation is possible and any meaningful encounter with the photograph must
necessarily occur at the level of connotation"(8). We could spin off at a
tangent at this point and go into a long winded speculation on the relationship
of denotation and "functionality" and how it could be operating as a metaphor
for the functionality of the archive, but there are more important issues
raised by this section of the film, which seem to relate directly to my
perception of a matrix of "values".

It is at this point that Anderson declares himself to be Jewish and that he
fully understands the upsetting potential of Marilyn's didactic picture
narrative (didactic in the sense that it demonstrates how the archive
operates). At this point, there appears to be a slight ring of dissonance and a
sense that Poliakoff is postulating a vaguely unsettling theory. My perception
is that Poliakoff's primary allegiance is biased toward the archivists and as
we now know their operation is threatened by specifically US "big business" and
modernity personified by Anderson. The culture which is also a part of
Anderson's life vis-à-vis business, trade, cultural modernism, is very
largely perceived as being strongly connected with US jury, some have cited a
"US Jewish industrial complex". However, the raison d'être of the
archive is strongly associated with notions couched in the histrionics of the
Euro Christian bourgeois elite's vis-à-vis esoteric value and antiquity.
Generally Poliakoff's handling of this situation feels uncomfortable, it seems
to lack any of the usual ethical coherence and resolution that one would
normally expect in the presentation of such material and the characters stand
points seem to be unclear and oscillatory. Marilyn continues with her narration
laying the "evidence" out in front of Anderson, though there are certainly
obvious emotive counterpoints to this sequence the overriding concern still
seems to be located in the communication of insight and a process of
indoctrination. The photographic material continues to be proffered as a form
of "proof" and the central code of the discourse remains with the notion of
photographic denotation. There is however, another angle on the history of
photographic critique that Poliakoff could be trying to evoke almost
subconsciously, that is the darker side of photography, which relates directly,
not only to Marilyn's perceived attention to verisimilitude and "proof", but
also the whole business of photographic storage. Photography has been famously
misused in the past and reappropriated to the pursuit and transmission of
dangerous pseudo science. Hugh Diamond found the medium to be perfectly suited
to an illustration of his theory of physiognomy. The public belief in the
authority and ineluctable truthfulness of the photograph was instrumental in
the development of this pseudo science and the science of eugenics that sprang
from it and both of these have been cited in the persecution of the Jews.
Photography was an instrument through which the state was able to acquire
higher degrees of hegemony, particularly in terms of policing, a photographed
suspect has literally no where to hide. This prospect intern relates to the
dystopian possibilities of monitoring and control the ideals of a fascist
state.

Mr Anderson is obviously highly moved by Marilyn 's presentation and
comments; "incredible, a story caught like that!" and again it is difficult to
tell weather Poliakoff is being ironic and cynical in view of Marilyn's
certainty in the telling of Lilly's story. Marilyn's narrative adventures do
however bring our attention to one of Anderson's other potentially destructive
economically motivated plans. As a compromise, he suggests that he (his
company) will buy all of the most valuable prints in the collection and that
Marilyn should either keep or dispose of the "worthless stuff" . As a counter
to this, the range of narrative techniques and disclosures of functionality
concentrate on the vital importance of the collections heterogeneity. As
suggested previously all of the images in the archive broach some aspect of
value, some may have phenomenal significance that is as yet unqualified and
many of the images which constituted Lilly's photo-montage would have been
considered worthless in any other context by Anderson. Poliakoff seems to have
construed Marilyn's montages as a mini treatise on the notion of context and
value which has particular significance to the "polysemic"(9) quality of
photographs, that is their tendency to a quality of plasticity in terms of
connotation that is dependent on the context of presentation. Photographs are
also polysemic in a temporal context and unlike painting or sculpture they have
a tendency to become diachronic symbols. We are all familiar with the process
were by famous press photos, for example, gradually metamorphose into icons,
and then eventually become transfigured into items of art history and end up as
"source material" for post modern artists and graphic designers.

MARILYN IN THE LAIR OF THE CODE BREAKERS

Marilyn resolves to approach the advertising industry in pursuit of a buyer
for the collection a situation that Poliakoff seems to have construed with the
specific intention of introducing a symbolic narrative discourse on the
condition(s) of post-modernism. A category which up until this point has mostly
resided in the semiological form of the film, a notably example being the
self-reflexive cross current effect of Oswald's video diary project. A meeting
is consequently arranged with the director of a significant agency and
Poliakoff sets up this situation in what appears to be the form of a
metonymical mise en scene. The semi impromptu meeting is set in a night
club where the rather unappealing Ad director impatiently and half interestedly
sits through Marilyn's badly prepared presentation. The ad director is
presented almost as criminal "type" surrounded by his entourage in a tableau
reminiscent of a scene from the villains lair in a Bond film, the mise en
scene is decidedly hedonistic possibly even seedy. Poliakoff seems to be
alluding to a perception that this mans profession is rather unworthy of the
material that Marilyn is attempting to present. He is a representative of the
culture of consumption and a culture that consumes images, he belongs to an
industry that steals meaning and reappropriates it to its own needs and as with
any common thief the stolen material is inevitably passed off at a fraction of
its original value. This man takes something of significance and makes it
superficial and transitory. Marilyn appears almost naive in the context of the
situation and by proffering what appear to be some of the collections most
significant artistic and graphic images it is as though Poliakoff is confirming
a negative perception of the situation. The ad director is primarily interested
in colour images, he wants to know what percentage of the collection is in
colour? Of course, the answer is very little. Colour is presented as an index
of modernity it is also a rare and usually disfavoured medium within the remit
of high art photography and practically non existent within the category of
classic art photography and the most historically significant imagery. Yet
again, my perception is hinting at dichotomy, crossed purposes and
dialectically structured narrative. The characterisation of the ad exec could
possibly disclose Poliakoff's contempt for the advertising profession, or more
significantly post-modernism and its possible associations with a culture of
superficiality and dumbing down. In terms of the photographic issues of the
piece, the advertising industry could certainly be cited as an important player
in what Jean Baudrillard has referred to as the "industrial simulacrum"(10). A
notion that relates directly to the process of copying, mass reproduction and
the dilution of the "object value" which is an important concern of the
archivists. Again this idea of the industrial simulacrum relates back to the
concept of cult value something originally conceived of as a proto Marxist
assault on bourgeois cultural traditions and the obverse concept of exhibition
value. It has since been pointed out by Theodore Adorno that the principals
underlying the notion of cult value are intrinsically fixed in the capitalist
processes of production(11). From this and many other perceptions of the film
it would appear that Poliakoff's arguments are aligned with the "exhibition
value" and connotative associations of photography.

As the drama moves toward its conclusion the subtext(s) are simultaneously
orchestrated into a grand contrapuntal crescendo in an effort to produce a
fortuitously meaningful correlation of events. In a last ditch attempt to save
the archive in its entirety Marilyn subjects Anderson to one last remarkable
demonstration of the archives capabilities. Again, this takes the form of a
presentation of a photographically illustrated parallel narrative only this
time it has direct significance for Anderson himself. It is effectively the
culmination of a hasty but non the less effective research effort conducted
somewhat obscurely by Oswald, who at this point is recovering from an overdose.
The process of research itself becomes a subtext of the diegetic meta narrative
of this photographic divulgence of Anderson's unknown past. The process
virtually becomes an epiphany for him, it is presented as a reconstructive
event, one that serves to reconstruct his whole identity and one that is seen
to finally elevate his understanding of the archive and provide a point of
clear empathic insight into the minds of the archivists. The device is
identical to that employed in Marilyn's presentation of the Oldandorph family
photos.